mark_asphodel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mark_asphodel) wrote2011-06-12 10:31 am
mark_asphodel) wrote2011-06-12 10:31 am
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Jugdral Wibbles
I'm attempting to fill one of the one-word prompts per day, preferably in order of request. If you want to request anything, the post is here.
I didn't volunteer to write for Jugdral on this one, even though I cop to being one of the people who complains that there's not enough Jugdral 'fic out there. I seem to have a mental block on writing anything for it, outside of making Leaf "the squishy one" in various mash-ups. And I tell myself that it's because the game scripts are too involved to grasp without actually playing through them, that playing them will take up too much time, that if I really want to write Jugdral with the depth that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kittykatloren and sarajayechan bring to it then I really ought to read the mangas... all of them. And I tell myself that the people who love Jugdral really love it and I need to do it justice if I ever to take a stab at it.
Basically, I tell myself that the canon is too intimidating and I'm not ready for it.
I think I'm lying to myself. It's because I don't like most of the characters. I don't want to write them.
The situations that these characters are in, particularly with the generational themes playing out, made the characters initially seem awesome to me. You don't have to manufacture darkness, or invent parental losses or sibling separation or any other plot points o'drama. It's there. The parent-child relationships have a built-in resonance that you have to kind of work at for most second-gen Elibe characters, IMO. And the happy endings and the reunions and such are there, too, especially if you decide to run with some of the more cracked-out things that the designers came up with, like resurrecting Tiltyu after keeping her on ice for a while. Great material.
I still don't like most of these characters. I want to kick a lot of them, including Tiltyu. And Sylvia. And others, like Claude and Eltoshan, really... don't interest me on anything beyond an abstract level. My single favorite first-gen character in FE4 is probably Levin, and I like him best as Tactician!Levin... who isn't really Levin. But he's cool. I think the Thracia/Lenster gang and the Silesians are the only characters I actually like.
Basically, if these characters weren't in such complex and "dramatic" situations, I think I'd like them even less than I do. Like some of the FE7 characters I don't care for, it's the existence of a canonical destiny for them that gives them the apparent weight they have. Out of context, they just don't do it for me.
Argue away, 'cause I want to like them and write for them. I'm just... so not feeling the love for these people.
I didn't volunteer to write for Jugdral on this one, even though I cop to being one of the people who complains that there's not enough Jugdral 'fic out there. I seem to have a mental block on writing anything for it, outside of making Leaf "the squishy one" in various mash-ups. And I tell myself that it's because the game scripts are too involved to grasp without actually playing through them, that playing them will take up too much time, that if I really want to write Jugdral with the depth that
kittykatloren and sarajayechan bring to it then I really ought to read the mangas... all of them. And I tell myself that the people who love Jugdral really love it and I need to do it justice if I ever to take a stab at it.Basically, I tell myself that the canon is too intimidating and I'm not ready for it.
I think I'm lying to myself. It's because I don't like most of the characters. I don't want to write them.
The situations that these characters are in, particularly with the generational themes playing out, made the characters initially seem awesome to me. You don't have to manufacture darkness, or invent parental losses or sibling separation or any other plot points o'drama. It's there. The parent-child relationships have a built-in resonance that you have to kind of work at for most second-gen Elibe characters, IMO. And the happy endings and the reunions and such are there, too, especially if you decide to run with some of the more cracked-out things that the designers came up with, like resurrecting Tiltyu after keeping her on ice for a while. Great material.
I still don't like most of these characters. I want to kick a lot of them, including Tiltyu. And Sylvia. And others, like Claude and Eltoshan, really... don't interest me on anything beyond an abstract level. My single favorite first-gen character in FE4 is probably Levin, and I like him best as Tactician!Levin... who isn't really Levin. But he's cool. I think the Thracia/Lenster gang and the Silesians are the only characters I actually like.
Basically, if these characters weren't in such complex and "dramatic" situations, I think I'd like them even less than I do. Like some of the FE7 characters I don't care for, it's the existence of a canonical destiny for them that gives them the apparent weight they have. Out of context, they just don't do it for me.
Argue away, 'cause I want to like them and write for them. I'm just... so not feeling the love for these people.
no subject
Good to know.
Shanan actually does interest me (and I like his friendship with Oifaye as an adult)
Shanan interests me, but I don't know what to do with him. Ditto Oifaye (who is the most boring tactician I've ever seen during his stint in the role).
FE5 is deeper and more intimate in some ways.
I really need to do more than just data-mine the FE5 script occasionally. And I guess it's not a coincidence that the Jugdral characters I feel something for happen to mostly be the ones featured in FE5. I mean, between Briggid and Adean, I'm FAR more interested in Briggid.
FE4's one biggest weakness imo is that the Sigurd/Deirdre relationship is a MAJOR foundation of the entire game
Hah. That's a problem too, for sure. But I already knew way back that Sigurd/Deirdre wasn't doing it for me, but I was surprised to find how few characters out of the FE4 cast I really gave a damn about. It's a far cry from 2 or 8 in that regard.
no subject
You know, after the initial shininess of the plot/world wore off, I did find myself losing interest fast, and I do think that has to do with the characters. I find them all likable (except maybe Tiltyu, who is kind of meh all around to me, despite her depressing and sympathetic storyline), but as time goes on I realize I'm just not that invested in them. But the characters I'm truly invested in, I'm REALLY invested in, which I think more than balances it out for me.
It really is Thracia that reignited my passion for the universe, I suspect. Funnily enough, something similar happened to me with Elibe; I imprinted on FE7 and had a hard time warming up to FE6 (I did not have a hard time warming up to FE5, but like I said, the story is ALL ABOUT some of my favorite character archetypes so I'm totally biased), but I've pretty much mellowed out on the majority of the FE7 cast while FE6 keeps me going.